Nevada County picayune., 1887-03-30
The Defendants ACCOInpliCe.

Gabriel BniterWOrth, of the same town, for the recovery oI thirty thousand dollars. of which he claimed that said Butterworth had defrauded him. The circumstances were these:
 Butterworth owned and kept the principal store in Acton, and though he had never been regard. ed as an exemplary gentlemen, his honor in business had not been i'm pugned. Those who had the facul. ty of looking upon the undercur- rents of human actions decided that he was man not bound by honor. but who understood the laws of self.interest too well to be guilty of small meannesses Ill bus mess. What ile was capable oi doing on q grand scale was not mooted until the occurrence Of which l am about to speak
 Seth Damon had removed from Edson to Acton in the fall, and had purchased the iron works. Short ly after concluding the purchase, he had a payment of thirty thous- and dollars to make, and late on d Saturday afternoon he arrived from New York with the money, part of It in bank notes aud part of it in gold. When he returned he found that the parties 10 whom the mon ey was to be paid had left town, and wonld not return till Monday Mir. Butterworth had the only re- liable safety vault in town, and to MT. Butterworth Damon took the thirty thousand dollars, askiug permission to lodge II in his vault over the Sabbath, which permis- sion was readily and cheerfully granted.
 During Sunday night people of the village were aroused by the alarm of fire; and upon starting out it was found that the alarm came from Butterworth's store but Mir. Butterworth had been ac- tive. He had discovered the fire in season, and, with the assistance of his boys. had put il out before much damage had been done. Up on looking over the premises It was found that the fire had not on- ly been the work of an incendiary, but that It had been set in several different places.
 How fortunate" said the own. CT, "that l discovered it in season."
 But very soon another discovery was made. The safety.vault had been broken open, and every dol lar it had contained stolen away! Here was alarm and consternatlon. Gabriel Butterworth seemed fit to go crazy.
 "For myself l care not,' he cried. "A few hundreds were all l had in there; bnt my friend had a great sum-"
 Immediately search for robber, or robbers, was instituted, and word was sent far and near to all shefiffs and their deputies, and to the police ofthe cities.
 Now, it had so happened that on that very Sunday evening, or, may say, Sunday night, l, John Wat son, had been returning from my hrother's, in Dumstable. had left my hired team at the stable, and on my way to my boarding house l passed the store of MT. Butter worth. In the back yard of the store was horse trough, and, be- ing thirsty, l stepped around that way to get draught of water. As 1 stopped to drink at the fountain I saw a gleam of light througb a creviee in the shutters of one of the store windows. Curiosity i'm. pelled me to go and peer through, for l wondered who could be m there at that hour of Sunday night. The crevice was quite large, made by wearing away of the edges of the shutters where they had been caught by the hooks that had held them back when open, and through it looked into the store. l looked upon the wall within which the safety vault was built, and I saw the vault open, and l saw Gabriel Butterworth at work therein. l saw him put large packages into his breast pocket and saw him bring out two or three small bags, and set them up. on the floor h, the door that open ed toward his dwelling. As l saw